Abstract:
This paper discusses the theoretical validity of Thomas Piketty’s fundamental laws
about income distribution in the context of a standard neoclassical growth model.
We take Uzawa’s two-sector growth model as the platform of our analysis, as it allows
us to make a distinction between the technological elasticity of factor substitution
of the production function and the aggregate distributive elasticity of substitution.
We examine the properties of the non-steady growth path through both analytical
and numerical investigations. We conclude that some of the numerical simulations
corroborate Piketty’s theory without assuming that the economy is on a steady
growth path. However, if the elasticities of factor substitution in the individual sectors
are less than one as many empirical studies show, then the economy approaches
the state where all products are completely distributed to workers. This contradicts
Piketty’s diagnosis about the current distributional inequality. In addition, the aggregate
income distribution is stable for a relatively long time, and differences in the
initial conditions are preserved during this period. This means that the comparative
statics of the steady states might not present an adequate description of the economy’s
behavior in a period of time that is practical. Our final evaluation of Piketty’s
proposition is that it is better understood as a theory inferred from historical data
and not one necessarily deduced from standard neoclassical growth theory.
